Orphea Abilities and Strategy

• Each enemy Hero hit by Overflowing Chaos generates one Chaos, making area hits key to improving your survivability.
• Shadow Waltz may be tempting to use on-Cooldown, but using it to avoid dangerous skillshots is paramount.
• Chomp synergises naturally with Shadow Waltz; use the latter to dash to your intended target.
• Both Dread's initial wave and eruption can hit a given target.

Shadow Waltz is Orphea's most important Ability. Shadow Waltz's short Cooldown (2 seconds on Hero hits) gives it a high sustain damage output, especially when considering Overflowing Chaos. Shadow Waltz's cooldown, however, is significantly higher when failing to hit an enemy Hero (6 seconds). This makes accuracy and the ability to follow up on crowd control important skills for Orphea players to develop.

Shadow Waltz's name comes from the short dashing effect that follows a successful hit. This dashing effect can be triggered by right-clicking a point or unit, upon which Orphea will rapidly move a short distance towards the target. This effect can and should be used, as possible, to avoid enemy skillshots or otherwise reposition yourself offensively for Basic Attacks or Chomp. It should be noted that while Orphea can dash through units, she cannot dash through terrain, Structures, or any kind of movement blocker. Further, she cannot dash while under the effects of movement-preventing crowd control.

Since Shadow Waltz has a 0.5 seconds cast time, care is required so as to not miss one's intended target. In parallel, enemies are likely to try and avoid Shadow Waltz due to its importance to Orphea, making mindgames an important aspect of the Hero.

Although using Shadow Waltz on-Cooldown may be tempting, its utility in avoiding dangerous Abilities makes restrained use much more prudent under most circumstances.

Chomp is Orphea's highest damage Ability. Its very short range and relatively long cast time, however, make it difficult to use on its own. This is why it is generally preceded by an offensive Shadow Waltz's dash to close the gap between Orphea and the intended target. This combo is, in fact, the crux of Orphea's offensive playstyle, particularly when following up allied crowd control.

Chomp's area of effect is large enough to allow it to hit an entire Minion wave, although its short range makes retaliation easy for opponents. In fact, one should always be very mindful of their surroundings when using Chomp at any time.

Dread is Orphea's filler Ability. Its long range allows it to be lobbed at immobile enemy Heroes and Minions alike safely and to good effect. Since Dread's eruption effect has a short delay, it can be avoided by opponents. As such, you should see to aim slightly ahead so as to force them to take the hit or fall back and risk being hit by your other Abilities.

It should be noted that both Dread's initial wave and eruption can hit a given target, making it optimal to aim slightly behind immobile targets (such as those under the effects of crowd control) so as to ensure double hits.

Further, Dread's eruption's Slow effect can help with hitting Shadow Waltz and Chomp alike, as well as provide a limited means of self-peeling.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Eternal Feast is a large area of effect Ability designed specifically for area denial. In other words, its purpose is to force enemies away from a specific area of effect for fear that they may repeatedly trigger Eternal Feast.

Due to its long 1.5-second initial delay, hitting enemies with Eternal Feast without the help of crowd control is unlikely. Without allied crowd control to setup for it, Eternal Feast is generally used to break team fights apart or on important points of contention such as Objectives and Bosses.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Crushing Jaws is Orphea's main team fighting Ability and only true source of crowd control. Successful Crushing Jaws hits allow you to follow up with each of your other Abilities perfectly for significant amounts of damage. Your allies, too, may find Crushing Jaws' effects useful to secure their own hits. As such, you should aim to hit two or more Heroes, as possible. Beware, however, as Crushing Jaws has a delay of 1.25 seconds, making it easy to avoid for Heroes with a gap closer that is off-Cooldown. Crushing Jaws should certainly be used in conjunction with allied crowd control so as to prevent it from being avoided.

Crushing Jaws also opens up the possibility for Orphea to land solo kills against some of the squishier Heroes, assuming it is followed up with your other Abilities. Since Crushing Jaws has a relatively short cooldown, this should be done whenever possible if you think you can secure a kill.

Overflowing Chaos is Orphea's source of self sustain, and represents a good reason to use Basic Attacks as often as possible, unlike most casters. To maximise the use of Overflowing Chaos, one Basic Attack should be used against a Hero every time 3 stacks are reached, as further stacks provide no additional effect. Shadow Waltz can be used to help deal such Basic Attacks and generally quickly generate Overflowing Chaos stacks.

It should be noted that hitting multiple Heroes with a single Basic Ability cast does generate multiple Overflowing Chaos stacks, making area hits desirable to try and land.